Online Discussions

My Educational Technology Philosophy
As a Prospective educator, I believe that the incorporation of technology into the classroom curriculum is vital if students are to thrive in this society of computers and gadgets. We are living in a digital age therefore the onus is on us as educators to tailor and personalize the learning activities, to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities by means of digital tools and resources. Simply put we have to prepare students for a technology dominated future- a future where without this knowledge they may not be prepared to compete for future jobs.
Technology is integrated into every part of our lives and has become a part of our human experience. It plays a significant role in our shopping experiences, our transportation, our health care system, in our schools, in our banking transactions and also in our homes.
Technology is not stagnant, it’s dynamic. For that reason I believe that as an educator, I should continually inform myself about new technology so my students may benefit from my knowledge. Hence, I ensure that as a teacher my educational philosophy is flexible to adapt to the changes which will benefit to my students.
The infusion of technology will allow for collaboration among students which will foster a learning network and allow for students to express their own ideas and thoughts among themselves while constructing knowledge. This is supporting the theory of Jerome Bruner. With technology students will not only become lifelong learners but innovative thinkers, great problem solvers and it will also enable students to adapt to changes. Technology is the ideal tool to empower students to create and take ownership of their learning.


Digital native
Digital native was one of the term coined Marc Prensky. From my understanding digital native
Is an individual who was born in the digital world and uses technology as a way to converse, store information, educate, and understand society.” Digital Natives speak the language of technology and are as comfortable with technology as past generations have been with pen and paper. “Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.”(Marc Prensky, 2001). Educators who are of the pre-digital age (digital immigrant) are now struggling to teach a generation who speaks an entirely new language. Being exposed to technology in early years is believed to give digital natives a greater familiarity and a wider understanding of technology than people who were born before it was prevalent in society. Therefore for digital immigrant to keep up they have to now play "catch up" to meet students at their level.

 Technology and Policies
According to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_policy "Education Policy is the principle and government policy-making in educational sphere, as well as the collection of laws and rules that govern the operation of education systems." It is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education to develop new educational policies for Educational institutions at all levels, in order to maintain certain standards, but in fairness the education system do have its advantages and disadvantages which influences education system. One of the education policy in Jamaica states that all students within a particular age group must attend school. Yet still we see children under the age of 18 who did not complete primary or never made it high school.
The education police seek to answer questions about the purpose of education, the objectives (societal and personal) that it is designed to attain, the methods for attaining them and the tools for measuring their success or failure. Yet still they provide teachers with limited equipments and resources and in return they expect mastery from all students. I believe that the policies governing the education system requires too much and not much is provided to ensure the success of these implementations. 

Technology Integration in the Classroom
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_integration Technology Integration is the use of technology tools in general content areas in education in order to allow students to apply computer and technology skills to learning and problem-solving.
Integrating technology into classroom means more than teaching basic computer skills and software programs in a separate computer class. Integration of Technology allows the tables to be turned. Instead of constantly spoon feeding students with knowledge the teacher can give assignments that require them to learn the necessary material themselves. With technology students have the ability to get the information they need any time anywhere, without being in the physical presence of a teacher. Technology can be used to enhance the learning process for example teachers can use technology to introduce, reinforce, extend, enrich, assess, and remediate student mastery of curricular targets.
Integrating Technology can produce a much greater depth of understanding of a concept when used in a classroom setting they can go far beyond chalk and talk. Each student is, of course, different but Information technologies can permit them to break step with the class and go at a pace and order that suits that student better. Without disrupting the class, they can repeat difficult lessons and explore what they find interesting.

Webquest

Course reflection

Course Reflection

My learning experience in Educational technology during this semester has being tremendous one. I have taken away a lot from this course; I got the privilege of learning about Marc Prensky, who is an American writer and speaker on learning and education. I strongly support his view on digital immigrants and digital natives. I am now able to categorize persons who are technology savvy and persons who not so technology savvy. Moreover what I liked most about this course is that I was expose to Instructional System Design (ISD)  which is also known as ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implement, Evaluate) and SAT (System Approach to Training). I believe if these learning technologies are employed effectively it can result in greater success for learners.

In Educational technology I learned about ISTE NETS. ISTE NETS are created for both teachers and students to ensure best practice through the use of technology. They are the standards for learning, teaching and leading in the digital age. Some of the various tools created by ISTE NETS are: movie maker, wiki, podcast, facebook and webquest.  I believe that if all these tools are used correctly can produce excellent results on both students and teachers on a hold.

In addition to that, being an active participant in class had allowed me to reach my full learning potential; I was more inclined to do my assignments especially the on-line discussion which I was very enthuse about- it made learning fun and exciting. In doing the Educational Technology course I did not experience much difficulty with the course because I always attend class with an open mind which makes me ready to learn and take on any challenge that might arise during the course.

My learning goals and strategies were to learn as much as possible and apply what I learned to my daily life. I got the chance to learn about the different types of learning theories for technology integration in a more detailed format which allowed me to have a clearer understanding about learning theories on a hold.

 Prior to doing the course I was only au-fait with the one format of writing lesson plans but doing the course I was exposed to the ASSURE model which is another model of writing lesson plan. It is as effective as the one that I am familiar with because it contains all the relevant elements that is required for lesson plan writing and for the execution of an effective lesson.

I learned about the cone of experience which is a model that incorporates several theories related to instructional design. It is a learning process that presents bands of experience arranged according to degree of abstraction and not degree of difficulty. It has been good for me to learn first-hand what this distance learning is all about. Thank you for your help and patience.

The classroom that I did the course in was a very learner friendly environment; it was very organized and was suitable for the teaching of the Educational Technology. Prior to going to class each week we have the privilege of reading ahead because the notes are posted on schoology website and being a visual learner it is very beneficial for me. Reading a head enables me to be vast during class discussions and it helps me with retention of information.

personal philosophy for using technology in education

My personal philosophy for using technology in education
        As a Prospective educator, I believe that the incorporation of technology into the classroom curriculum is vital if students are to thrive in this society of computers and gadgets. We are living in a digital age therefore the onus is on us as educators to tailor and personalize the learning activities, to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities by means of digital tools and resources. Simply put we have to prepare students for a technology dominated future- a future where without this knowledge they may not be prepared to compete for future jobs.
Technology is integrated into every part of our lives and has become a part of our human experience. It plays a significant role in our shopping experiences, our transportation, our health care system, in our schools, in our banking transactions and also in our homes.

Technology is not stagnant, it is dynamic. For that reason I believe that as an educator, I should continually inform myself about new technology so my students may benefit from my knowledge. Hence, I ensure that as a teacher my educational philosophy is flexible to adapt to the changes which will benefit to my students. Jean Piaget believes that “The principle goal of education is to create men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done.” I strongly share the view of Piaget because as nation it will retard our level of technology education and as a nation we will find our self taking a step backward instead of going forward.

The infusion of technology will allow for collaboration among students which will foster a learning network and allow for students to express their own ideas and thoughts among themselves while constructing knowledge. This is supporting the theory of Jerome Bruner. With technology students will not only become lifelong learners but innovative thinkers, great problem solvers and it will also enable students to adapt to changes. Technology is the ideal tool to empower students to create and take ownership of their learning.